


How It Started

by IcyEarth



Series: How It Happened [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Needs a Hug, Everyone Is Gay, Logan is an amputee, M/M, Patton is trans, Roman has a therapy dog, Roman is aroace, Roman sings, Roman | Creativity “Princey” Sanders Needs A Hug, Swearing, Virgil is very emo and very poor, almost forgot, everyones a bit ooc, lots of tags not a lot of fic, oh yeah, well logan is pan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-12 07:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20560283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyEarth/pseuds/IcyEarth
Summary: It’s said that in order for something to start something else must end.That’s complete bullshit.





	1. Virgil

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning to my au, How It Happened! The blog for it can be found at @howithappenedverse on tumblr.

Working forty hours a week at his barista job, not to mention his nighttime activities, and Virgil still couldn't make both rent and electricity if he wanted food. The water had been off for almost two months. The last time Virgil showered was the last time he spent the night at Remy’s place, which he wouldn’t be doing again any time soon since someone went out and entered a committed relationship with a functional person who sets healthy boundaries such as ‘Your broke coworker cannot live at your house half time’.  
Remy’s only thoughts on his plight was that he desperately needed some roommates, which would’ve been an awesome suggestion if Virgil hadn’t lived in a two room apartment ( including the bathroom) that was maybe two hundred fifty square feet if he was being generous.  
When Remy showed up for work ten minutes past opening with only the top half of his uniform on, instead of saying hello, he handed Virgil a printed ad for a three bedroom apartment in the nice part of town.   
“He buys coloured ink for his printer? And uses it for shit like this? Rem, who the fuck did you catch?” The elderly lady in the corner of the shop looked scandalised for a brief second, but she had been coming here for years and made that face whenever he opened his mouth, so Virgil was pretty sure that it was probably more the Spanish accent and less what he was actually saying.  
“House now, my love life later, hun.” Virgil actually looked at the advert this time, but he stopped again when he got to the price.  
“Remy, I can absolutely not afford this. Like, not even close. Thanks, dude, but no.” Virgil gave Remy an exasperated glance, put the paper under the counter and spun around to grab the blueberry muffins out of the oven and slide them in the glass display case with all the grace of a drunk duckling. Sadly, none crashed out the back. No breakfast for him then.  
Remy didn’t even look up from where he was icing the lemon loaf, sunglasses sliding down his nose even though it was October and there were clouds in the sky.  
“R-O-O-M-M-A-T-E-S, gurl. Let someone else do the dishes for once.”  
“I do not own a single dish and you fucking know it.”  
“Let someone else buy the dishes for once, then.”  
Virgil reached into the display case and actually put the muffins into the lines they were supposed to be in, and rushed to the back after to put the baking sheet with the rest of the morning’s dishes. He heard the bell of the front door go off while he was in the back, but decided to let Remy deal with this customer. It wasn’t like Remy was going to do much work for the rest of the day anyway.  
When Virgil eventually decided to go back up, the cafe was empty again, save for the elderly lady in the corner who was almost done with her daily morning coffee.  
Remy was already on his phone, leaned up against the counter with a bored look on his face while he scrolled mindlessly.  
“What’s that expression? Time to lean, time to clean?” Virgil muttered as he took his spot leaning next to him. Remy ignored him, choosing instead to hand him his phone with an ad for another apartment pulled up. This one was a four bedroom, but despite that it didn’t cost a fucking fortune, and was about halfway between the cafe and the bar Virgil bartended at four nights a week.  
“You have tomorrow night off, right?” Remy was picking at his fingernails, the dark blue nail polish was already peeling off even though it was only three days old.  
“Yesssss.....” Virgil asked suspiciously, already anticipating what Remy was about to say, but he had hoped in vain that his coworker wasn’t that bold.  
“You have a tour of the apartment booked for eight pm, which should be enough time for you to go home and give yourself a sink shower before you go down.” Virgil gaped at Remy for a second before flipping him off behind his back, just in time to smile at the next customer as they came through the door. Remy did this thing where he fixated on things for a day and decided it must happen or he would die. Virgil guessed today’s thing was getting him a new house. Virgil would play along, it didn’t mean he was necessarily committing to anything.  
Besides, it would be rude not to go now.


	2. Patton

Patton was running out of options. His parents wanted him out, his boyfriend did not want him in, and his school was halfway across the country and therefore dorms were out of the question. Online classes are great only if you have a room to take them in and wifi to take them with.

His parents had offered to pay half the rent of wherever he ended up living, which meant he had to pay the other half. Which meant getting a real job. Something Patton had never even had to think about before, much less actually do.

That’s what led him to where he was now. Sat in his room at ten a.m. scrolling through his instagram half heartedly with his laptop open on the bed next to him, ready to look busy at a moments notice. 

He heard footsteps pounding up the stairs, giving him enough time to pull said laptop into his lap and go back to ‘inspecting’ the same job listing he’d had open for almost two hours.

He just hadn’t been feeling it that day.

Patton’s mother poked her head in through the open door, a tired look on her tired face. She always looked worn out these days, three boys all in their twenties and all still living at home would do that to you. Patton was the oldest, and it showed in how ready he was to help with anything at any time. Except when it came to moving out.

“How’s it going, my love?” Patton’s mother’s voice was quiet and strained from a lifetime of smoking, and her salt and pepper hair fell around her shoulders as she leaned further into his room without stepping over the threshold.

“Not awesome, mum. I don’t really know what to do at this point…” Patton sighed, closed his laptop and gestured his mother further into his room. She sat on his bed beside him, and looked into his eyes with an aura of seriousness about her rarely seen.

“Your grandma Dot told me about a man she knows who’s going to be needing roommates soon. He’s a barista at a cafe she goes to, and while she hasn’t talked to him directly, she wants you to come meet him tomorrow morning at eight thirty.” Patton stared at her for a second.

“Mum, I appreciate it and all, but I don’t have a job. I could never pay rent.”

“We’ll pay it for the first two months, while you job hunt, then we’ll pay half, then forty, so on so forth. Just go talk to him, okay?”

“Okay, mum, I’ll talk to him. But no guarantees.”

“Of course not.” She said, but her face was so relieved that Patton knew he was going to end up living with this guy pretty much no matter what happened.

At eight thirty the next morning, sure enough, he was walking with his grandma through the doors of a small indie coffee shop in Old Town. The guy behind the counter was... cute, for lack of a better word, but in a bad boy sort of way. Patton was about three days from breaking up with Toby anyway. Maybe he would move in.

Then a purple haired emo looking thing came out of the back, wiping his hands on his apron as he sauntered vaguely towards the counter. Patton felt bad for him more than anything, and he certainly was not the eye candy Bad Boy was. That was the one.

“That’s the one.” His grandma whispered loudly to him as she walked up to the ordering side of the counter.

“I heard yesterday that you would be needing roommates soon. My grandson will be needing a place to live soon. I’m sure you can work something out,” She turns to the first guy before finishing her sentence.

“My usual, please.” Bad Boy looked mildly annoyed at being pulled away from his phone for a second, before getting started on making the drink without further comment.

“And I’ll take a macchiato, please.” Patton didn’t even acknowledge Purple Hair for a moment, instead he just read the menu and ignored the awkwardness forming. Purple Hair and Bad Boy moved around each other with fluid motions as they worked, and Purple Hair came to rest in front of him again about a minute later, handed him his drink and leaned towards him slightly.

Dot took her own drink and moved towards the farthest table from the counter in the otherwise empty cafe, which let Bad Boy go back to scrolling his phone silently.

“You need a place to live, huh?” Purple Hair grumbled out, digging through his phone for something, elbows rested on the counter and head angled down.

“Yup!” Patton forced more cheer than he probably should have, if the look Purple Hair shot him is any indication, before he handed him his phone with an ad for an apartment open. A four bedroom in a part of town with almost no other apartment buildings. 

“What a weird place for an apartment.” Patton giggled, trying to joke around with his presumably future roommate.

“Take it or leave it.” He had no joke in his tone, he seemed more exhausted than anything.

“Take it, I guess.” Patton forced a smile. This was going to be... interesting, to say the least.


	3. Roman

Roman could not, for the life of him, remember what floor his therapist’s office was on, even though he went there once a week. As he stood in the empty, still, and silent elevator, he felt a small panic come on to him. Tesa stood beside him, and stared at him with worry in her eyes, but until he showed her something was wrong, she couldn’t do anything about it. He took a moment to get his breathing under control, before reaching out and hitting a button blindly. 

If he got the wrong floor, he could always just get back in the elevator and keep trying, eventually he would find it.

It took him three tries and a lot more weird looks before he finally found the right floor. As soon as he’d checked in and settled in an uncomfortable waiting room chair, he made a note of the floor number on his phone, before switching to twitter to scroll mindlessly for a minute.

The waiting room was packed to the brim, and Tesa was stuck in an almost permanent block in front of his chair, her eyes warily scanning the room. A toddler sitting in the opposite corner of the room had already tried to break away from his mother to pet Tesa twice, and looked to be going for a third try when the caller came in like a knight in shining armour to save him.

“Roman Antic, Dr. Picani will see you now.” The caller shouted over the loud din of the room. Roman scrambled quickly up from his chair, Tesa in tow, to the hallway that would lead him to his therapist. He didn’t knock, just let himself in when he found the door unlocked, and Dr. Picani waved at him from his hunched position in his chair as he scribbled furiously in his notepad.

The session went well, but about fifteen minutes from the end, Dr. Picani asked him if he could change the subject very quickly.

“Of course, doc. Waddaya need?” Roman questioned, a little nervous but asking nonetheless.

“I think, from what we’ve been talking about recently, that you might be ready to live away from home. I know your parents have been talking to you about it, and I wondered how you would feel about living with some roommates?” Dr. Picani was smiling at him gently, notepad clutched in a white-knuckled vice grip that gave away the gravity of the situation.

“Umm………” Roman didn’t know how to respond to that at all, opting instead to lean back on the couch and stare at a scuff on the beige wall just behind Dr. Picani’s head.

“You don’t have to answer right away, but I know of an apartment that needs another person that’s not very far from your parents’ house by bus, and it’s walking distance from your studio. Give it a look, see if you like it?” Dr. Picani handed him a colour printed advert for said apartment, giving him a chance to read it over before speaking again.

“Disability will cover most of the rent, your singing should take care of food, and I think your parents would be more than willing to pitch in if needed.” Roman was silent, taking in the weirdness of the situation. He had known he needed to move out for a while, but this seemed very sudden to him. The fact that it was his therapist bringing it up just compounded the weirdness.

“Think about it for me, okay?”

“Yeah, I can think about it. I can do that.”

“Good. I’ll see you next week, Roman.”

“See ya then, doc!” Roman let himself forget about moving out for a moment in order to be cheerful as he left the building, making sure he remembered to wave at the caller as he made his way to the door. Tesa led him back to the bus stop while his mind wandered. Moving would be a hard patch in an already hard year, but it might be worth it to not have his parents nagging him all the time about every little thing.

It did mean that he would have virtual strangers nagging him about every little thing.

While Roman liked people a lot, he also needed his own space or he’d lose his mind. He’d have his own room, he reasoned, but still.

It would take some adjusting. But as Roman waited for the bus, ad clutched in one hand and Tesa’s leash in the other, Roman decided he would give it a shot. He owed it to his parents to at least try.


End file.
